[Some analysts believe Mr. Chowdhury acted as
a coordinator for the Islamic State militant group in Bangladesh and
northeastern India. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for several
recent attacks in Bangladesh, including the assault on the bakery.]
By Julfikar Ali Manik and Nida
Najaraug
DHAKA,
Bangladesh — A Canadian man
suspected of having planned a July attack on a bakery in Dhaka that left 22
people dead was killed in a shootout with the Bangladeshi police on Saturday,
officials said.
The man, Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, a 30-year-old
Canadian citizen of Bangladeshi descent, was one of three militants killed in
the raid outside Dhaka, the capital, the officials said.
The Bangladeshi authorities have said Mr.
Chowdhury planned the July 1 assault on the Holey Artisan Bakery, a restaurant
popular with expatriates and middle-class Bangladeshis.
Some analysts believe Mr. Chowdhury acted as
a coordinator for the Islamic State militant group in Bangladesh and
northeastern India. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for several
recent attacks in Bangladesh, including the assault on the bakery.
The Bangladeshi police, however, identified
Mr. Chowdhury as the leader of a new branch of a domestic terrorist group, the
Jama’atul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, and the government initially denied that the
bakery attack had been carried out by members of foreign groups.
Later, officials acknowledged that the
attackers might have had links to such groups, including the Islamic State.
The shootout on Saturday morning took place
at a three-story house in the Narayanganj district near Dhaka, after the police
received a tip that the militants were hiding there, said A. K. M. Kamrul
Ahsan, a spokesman.
They were given a chance to surrender but
attacked the police with guns and grenades, at which point the police opened
fire, said a police official, Inspector General A. K. M. Shahidul Hoque, in
televised comments to reporters on Saturday. Both officials said Mr. Chowdhury
was among the militants killed.
The police had offered cash bounties of about
$25,000 this month for information leading to the arrest of Mr. Chowdhury and
for another militant, Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque, who was suspected of being
involved in recent killings of secular writers.
Mr. Chowdhury’s name was on a list of 10
high-value suspects released by the Bangladeshi authorities last month after
the Holey Artisan Bakery attack, an 11-hour siege carried out by five militants
who were eventually killed by soldiers. Analysts said Mr. Chowdhury and two
other Bangladeshi expatriates on that list could have been acting as links
between local and international extremist groups.
The bakery siege was the most deadly in a
series of violent attacks carried out by Islamist militants in Bangladesh over
the past several years. The frequency of those attacks has increased in recent
months.
Officials said they suspected that Mr.
Chowdhury was also behind a July 7 bombing at Bangladesh’s largest prayer
gathering for the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which killed four people: two police
officers, a civilian and a militant.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said Saturday
in televised remarks to reporters that the identities of the two militants
killed with Mr. Chowdhury would be released after an investigation, but that
one of them appeared to be Mr. Chowdhury’s right-hand man.
It was not clear whether either of them was
on the list of high-value suspects released last month.
“We think Tamim Chowdhury’s chapter has ended
here,” Mr. Khan said. “We will be able to catch the rest of the militants
soon.”
Julfikar Ali Manik reported from Dhaka,
and Nida Najar from New Delhi.
